Ballast Point to experiment in new Little Italy brewery

The brewery just leased a 9,000 square foot building in Little Italy for a new experimental facility. When it opens at 2215 India St. later this year, this will be the Point's third brewing operation in the county. It will join the Scripps Ranch headquarters, where beers are bottled and canned, and Home Brew Mart in Linda Vista, which produces plenty of draft beer.

"I've talked about raising the baby beer in Little Italy," said Chandler, the Point's specialty brewer and director of research and development, "then sending them off to pre-school and elementary school in Linda Vista and then, if it takes off -- grows up -- it goes to Scripps Ranch to be bottled."

Chandler added that most brewery employees, from delivery truck drivers to keg-washers, dream of making their own beer. The new brewery, which should open before the year's end, allows Ballast Point to play with new recipies and ingredients, and also to fulfill some fantasies. "The goal," Chandler said, "is to get every single employee in the company to come in and brew a batch."

Some of the beers made here may make their way into Ballast Point's regular lineup. All will be tapped and sold to the public -- in Little Italy even if nowhere else. The new place, equipped with a small kitchen, will also sell food.

Now the 46th largest craft brewery in the nation, and third largest in the county, Ballast Point is expanding in Scripps Ranch, too. Production for 2013 is forecast at 87,000 barrels.